1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic device, and more particularly, to a multilayer ceramic device in which functional deterioration of the device due to a crack is prevented and a heat-resistant characteristic for an external device of the device is enhanced.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chip components such as typical thin film multilayer ceramic condensers (MLCC) include a device body, an internal electrode, and an external electrode. The device body has a structure in which a plurality of dielectric sheets, referred to as green sheets, are stacked, and the internal electrode is provided on each of the dielectric sheets. Further, the external electrode is electrically connected to the internal electrode and covers both ends of the device body.
Normally, since multilayer ceramic devices are designed to focus on improvement of device characteristics, they are relatively vulnerable to physical pressure or impact, thermal impact, vibrations and the like from the outside. Therefore, a crack occurs in the device body when a physical or thermal impact is applied to a multilayer ceramic device. Usually, a crack occurs on a surface of the device body adjacent to an end of the external electrode and then propagates inward of the device body.
A technology to prevent damage on chip components caused by a crack is known in which an external electrode is made capable of absorbing impact from the outside. For example, the external electrode may include an internal metal layer to directly cover the device body, an external metal layer exposed to the outside, and an intermediate layer between the internal metal layer and the external metal layer. When impact is applied from the outside, the intermediate layer is separated from the internal metal layer to absorb the impact, thereby keeping the chip components normally operable despite of a bending crack occurrence.
However, the intermediate layer is made of mixture of a metal and a polymer resin, and the polymer resin is thermodegraded during a high temperature process for manufacturing the chip components, such that the intermediate layer and the internal metal layer has a gap therebetween, thereby causing a void. Such void and delamination problems are matters of a chip component itself, irrelevant to the operation of an electronic device having the chip component therein, resulting in deterioration of the chip component.